A long table lined with waiting contestants. Huge plates filled with pie. A growing crowd gathers, waiting, watching. Suddenly, the starting gun goes off with a bang. The eager contestants dig in, devouring pie as fast and as much as they can, paying no attention to each other, only themselves. They are definitely not sharing any piece of their precious pie. Consuming plate after plate, squeezing in every last crumb, they are thinking only of winning, of eating the most, of beating the person next to them, not of the consequence soon to come—an unpleasant, painful, and unfortunate stomach-ache.
Americans today remain forever lost in their own pie-eating contests. They consume just as much, and more, as the contestants. Not saving time for digestion in between purchases results in an outcome more significant than a stomach-ache. And yet, we remain oblivious. But remember, in a contest, someone is bound to lose.